UAE-based Indian in trouble over Islamophobic remark

DUBAI: A United Arab Emirates-based Indian national was in trouble over an Islamophobic post on social media and hurting the religious sentiments of Muslims, a media report said.

Mitesh Udeshi, a financial manager at an Abu Dhabi-based firm, could face legal action over his Islamophobic Facebook post which uses graphic images to show how a “jihadi coronavirus suicide spitter” could “cause 2,000 deaths compared to 20 by a jihadi bomber detonating a belt rigged with explosives”, the Gulf News report said on Monday.

According to the Gulf News report, the post was in reference to videos falsely claiming showing members of Tablighi Jamaat, a Muslim missionary group in India spitting on police.

Mitesh’s post has sparked outrage on social media with many demanding his immediate dismissal and arrest.

https://twitter.com/CoronaJihad/status/1246389387480322049?s=20

Shortly after the Gulf News report was published online, a legal representative for Mitesh’s employer said they have launched a probe into the matter.

“We are examining the case. Strict legal action pursuant to UAE laws will be taken against the man if our investigation reveals that it was he who put up that post. He will be sacked. We have a zero-tolerance policy,” the representative added.

Go back to Pakistan

In a similar incident last week, a visiting Indian job seeker was told to go to Pakistan by a compatriot, who owns an event management company in the UAE.

Shamshad Alam, 42, from Maharashtra, India, told Gulf News he had barely shared his resume with the company’s owner, S. Bhandari on WhatsApp when he messaged back saying “go back to Pakistan”.

“When I confronted him, he abused me and threatened to report me to police,” said Alam who has since lodged a complaint with Dubai Police.

Earlier who paid heavily

The following are few incidents in UAE who paid heavily for their Islamophobic social media posts.

In 2019, an employee in United Arab Emirates sacked and deported for allegedly celebrating the mass slaying of Muslims in New Zealand terror attacks.

In 2018, prominent Indian-origin chef Atul Kochhar at Dubai’s JW Marriott Hotel was fired over ‘anti-Islam’ tweet.

In 2017, a UAE-based company has sacked a 31-year old Keralite employee for abusing a well-known investigative journalist Rana Ayyub on the social media and for posting offensive posts against Islam on Facebook.

A Gulf firm Lulu Group International has fired a man from Kerala after he made insensitive comments on a social media post on the plight of the flood-hit victims in the state.